Australian VPP project to access 2m smart meters for load control

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced funding for Intellihub in a virtual power plant (VPP) project to leverage a network of 2 million smart meters and interface with over 140,000 customer energy resources for optimised load control.

On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA has announced AU$9.75 million ($6.55 million) in funding for the Australian and New Zealand-based utility services company to launch their Demand Flexibility Platform, targeting 510MW of aggregated load under control.

Intellihub’s AU$22 million ($14.8 million) load control project will initially target integration with residential hot water systems and solar PV, before expanding to incorporate other customer energy resources (CER) such as batteries, electric vehicle chargers and pool pumps over two years.

Intellihub will leverage its network of 2 million smart meters across the National Electricity Market and retailer relationships to interface with a range of CER devices to enrol more than 140,000 devices in the medium term.

Electricity retailers will be able to sign up households to the Demand Flexibility Platform and use it to manage their customers’ CER as part of the VPP. Intellihub will provide the interface between electricity retailers and customer-owned devices.

Participating CER can then be turned on or off to better manage supply and demand across electricity networks and wholesale markets.

Intellihub estimates that this could help reduce household energy costs by over a hundred Australian dollars, approximately US$67.19, per year for each device enrolled on its platform.

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Aggregated load control and optimisation

The project will leverage two recent Intellihub acquisitions: the deX CER integration and aggregation software developed by GreenSync and remote pool monitoring, optimisation and control technology called ‘Pooled’.

The vast majority of CER is currently ‘inflexible’, meaning it’s not possible to harness the benefits of flexibility from the gigawatts of energy that they generate or consume.

To date, the industry has not been able to efficiently aggregate these resources at scale due to the cost and complexities of integrating multiple device types and device manufacturers.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said in a statement that Intellihub’s Project could change the way CER is monitored and controlled, providing a potential solution at scale that can deliver widespread customer benefits.

“The continued growth in CER including hot water systems, rooftop solar and battery storage present the industry with both challenges and opportunities. Without the ability to monitor and control energy flows, these devices can create challenges for the grid, however, when aggregated and controlled, these resources can provide much needed demand flexibility, unlocking benefits for retailers, networks and consumers.

“Intellihub’s Demand Flexibility Platform represents an opportunity to create a smarter energy grid, where consumers are at the forefront of the energy transition, through the utilisation of their owned energy resources, being able to better match supply and demand on the grid while also making cost savings.”

Intellihub CEO Wes Ballantine added: “We now have the smarts to manage the energy these devices consume, so they become a flexible energy resource.

“They will work like a large battery energy system, soaking up excess daytime solar energy and avoiding consumption during peak demand periods to reduce stress on the system. There is enormous benefit from being smarter about how we manage these resources, not just for the energy system but for consumers and local communities.”

Intellihub is the only independent smart metering provider across Australia and New Zealand, supplying smart meters to more than 30 energy retailers.

Earlier this year in June, the smart metering and energy data services business announced acquisition of New Zealand metering solutions provider, Influx Energy Data, from electricity distribution business The Lines Company (TLC).

The acquisition served to strengthen the company’s position in the metering market, raising the number of their managed smart devices to more than 2 million across New Zealand and Australia.